How to Put In Soft Contact Lenses

Cristen Thrasher

Video transcription

Hi, my name is Cristen Thrasher, with Cool Springs Eye Care in Franklin, Tennessee, and I'm here to talk to you about how to insert and remove contact lenses. So, with soft contact lenses, when you remove it from the case, the first thing that you do any time you're going to put a lens in, is you'll look at the lens and inspect it for any defects. You want to make sure that it's not torn, ripped, that there's nothing on the lens. And if that's the case, then you need to discard it and get a new lens. You're also looking to make sure it's right-side in or inside-out, and there are a few different ways that you can tell. The first way is just to look at it from the side. You want to make sure that the edges of the lens are curved up, like a ball. If it's inside-out, the lens is going to curve outward, like this. The second test is called the Taco Test. And so, what you'll do is, you'll take the lens with your fingers and pinch it from the sides. And when you do that, if it's right-side in, it's going curl in, on itself like a taco. If it's inside-out, it's going to curl out, against your fingers. The third test is just to put it in your eye and if it's pretty uncomfortable, it's probably inside-out. Take it out, rinse it off and pop it back in. The thing that's the hardest about putting lenses in is your eyelids. Getting them out of the way, enough for the lens to get onto your cornea, to where it's going to stick. So, I always tell patients to use the hand that they're most comfortable with. If you're right-handed or left-handed, then you would use that hand to put the lens on. The other hand is going to come up over your head and grab your eyelashes to get them out of the way. When you have the lens on your index finger, you'll use the middle finger of that hand to pull down the other eyelid at the eyelashes. And you'll pop that lens right onto your eye, like that. If those lids are in the way and the lens catches them, it's going to fold back onto your fingers and not get contact with the eye. So, it's really important to get your lids out of the way.